On the sixteenth day of January, 1546, the Regent and cardinal arrived after night-fall at Elphingston Tower, in the neighbourhood of Ormiston, with five hundred men, and despatched the Earl of Bothwell to apprehend Wishart, holding themselves in readiness, if need were, . . . Continue reading →
God Is Immutable.
One of the most disturbing developments in the latter phases of the decline of the neo-evangelical empire, as Carl Henry, Harold Ockenga et al came to be replaced by their baby-boomer successors was the influx at the same time of a Socinian . . . Continue reading →
God’s Love Does Not Change Him Or In Him But It Does Change Us
The effect or manner of God’s love is, that God makes the person happy whom he loves. For he doth amply reward that joy and delight which he takes in the holiness and obedience of the Elect, while he pours plentifully upon . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerrilla: Me, Him, Idiocracy, And The Matrix
To anticipate an objection: yes, language evolves but language also has a fixed core. There is a connection between language and the nature of things. There is a distinction in nature between the subject and the object. The languages with which I . . . Continue reading →
Sibbes: Our Communion Was First Founded Upon A Covenant Of Works
This communion and fellowship of man with God, was first founded on a covenant of works made with Adam in paradise. If he did obey, and did not eat of the forbidden fruit, he should have life both for himself and his . . . Continue reading →
Of Common Grace, Nature, And Bathrooms
On a quick trip to and from Washington D.C. I read P. J. O’Rourke, The Baby Boom And How It Got That Way…. As always O’Rourke is funny, insightful, and often right on the mark. I’m not sure that I’m convinced that . . . Continue reading →
Three Things Dispensational Apologists Should Stop Saying
Introduction There are varieties of Dispensationalism, e.g., classic (Darby, Scofield), modified (Chafer, Ryrie), and progressive (Bock, Blaising). To be sure there are varieties of covenant theology, e.g., classic e.g., that taught in the classical period that taught the covenant of redemption (pactum . . . Continue reading →
The LGBT War On Free Thought And Speech
The vitriolic reaction of the LGBT lobby to honesty from Americans about their consciences, religious beliefs, scientific knowledge, and political stances shows that their agenda boils down to shutting down free speech. This sounds counter-intuitive. After all, the media and Hollywood conditioned . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: The Holy Spirit And Sanctification
We say the name of the Spirit so often and so quickly that perhaps we do not stop to consider what we have just said. Paul calls the Spirit, the “Spirit of Holiness,” the Spirit of separation and consecration to God, the . . . Continue reading →
O’Rourke On The Religion Of The Greatest Generation
During the 1950s denominations of the Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopalian kind had fitted the Light of the World with a lampshade so it wouldn’t produce distracting salvational glare and dampened the fires of perdition to avoid spiritual smoke inhalation. A stillness . . . Continue reading →
Dispensationalism’s Millennial Memorial Sacrifices: A Regression To Types And Shadows
Given the contrast between Jews and (mostly Jewish) Christians in the first century, it is not surprising that the Protestant Reformers referred to the millenarian concept of a revived theocracy as”A Jewish error.” In our day, classic dispensationalism teaches that the millennium . . . Continue reading →
Another End Of Watch
Southern Presbyterian Church On Dispensationalism In 1944
1. Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Changes in the Confession of Faith and Catechisms THE QUESTION AS TO WHETHER THE TYPE OF BIBLE INTERPRETATION KNOWN AS DISPENSATIONALISM IS IN HARMONY WITH THE CONFESSION OF FAITH The Ad Interim Committee appointed . . . Continue reading →
Imperative And Indicative; Law And Gospel
James writes to ask, I am trying to work out the Law/Grace distinction, and am having some trouble understanding the imperative/indicative divide. For example, in Acts 3 Peter is preaching what appears to be the gospel in the Temple, and he preaches . . . Continue reading →
Berkhof Contra Dispensationalism On The Essential Unity Of Redemptive History
As was already said in the preceding, the distinction between the law and the gospel is not the same as that between the Old and the New Testament. Neither is it the same as that which present day Dispensationalists make between the . . . Continue reading →
Three Things Dispensational Apologists Should Stop Saying
There are varieties of Dispensationalism, e.g., classic (Darby, Scofield), modified (Chafer, Ryrie), and progressive (Bock, Blaising). To be sure there are varieties of covenant theology, e.g., classic e.g., that taught in the classical period that taught the covenant of redemption (pactum salutis), . . . Continue reading →
Reconsidering The Covenant Of Works
If one learned Reformed theology, in the English-speaking world, before 2005 the probabilities are that the version learned did not include either the covenant of works between God and Adam before the fall or the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son . . . Continue reading →
Boston: Galatians Proves Adam Was In A Covenant Of Works
1. I shall confirm this great truth, and evince the being of such a covenant. It is altogether denied by the Arminians that there was any such covenant, and amongst ourselves by Professor Simson, that it was a proper covenant. The weight . . . Continue reading →
Law, Gospel, And The Three Uses of the Law
By “law and gospel” I’m referring to the debate between those of us who hold to the historic and confessional distinction between those places in Scripture where God commands and promises blessing conditioned upon our obedience (law) and where he promises blessing . . . Continue reading →
Manton: Lent Is Just Another Phony Tradition
That they [Romanists] cry up a private, unproved, unwritten tradition of their own, as of equal authority with this safe and full rule, which is contained in this written Word of God. Their crime and fault may be considered, partly with respect . . . Continue reading →